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ReMark's Discipline Details

I work for a specialty chemical manufacturer. I do a little bit of everything from P&IDs to civil to architectural and structural.

Using

AutoCAD 2015

Join Date

Nov 2005

Location

Norwalk, CT USofA

Posts

42,318

You should have "linked" the spreadsheet not copy it into a drawing. Follow the prompts in the Table creation Dialog box. The table can be found on the Draw toolbar, the Draw pulldown and the Dashboard.

Once the link has been established you'll find it works in either direction. Data links can include the entire spreadsheet, a single cell or even a range of cells.

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Xcl2cad

A 'FREE' way to do it...
I am sure thr r many ways to do this but here's what i can tell you:
1)In Excel: Copy cells you want in autocad
2)In Autocad: Paste special --> autocad entities; you should now get a "excel looking" table in autocad.
You can get effieient by linking this table to your Excel file, this way you would only have change you Orginal Excel file and Autocad would update (almost) automatically,
So after step 2, step 3) is select your data in autocad, by selecting ->ROW1COL1 then ->SHIFT KEY -> endROW endCOL-->RIGHT CLICK ->"LINK CELL/DATA LINK" Here you can select your range of data or select the whole excel sheet to show up in autocad. If you make any changes in Excel it will not update autocad (just yet). You have to go into Autocad Right click on any RowCol and goto DATA LINKS -> DOWNLOAD CHANGES FROM SOURCE FILE. Your autocad xcl sheet should now updat to match Excel sht.

Originally Posted by Sudhir

Hi

I have an excel sheet which contains tables of some calculations

i have copied it from excel to autocad. it was copied but the autocad has taken it as image

but i want it as editable or convert it into autocad means the table has to be editable in autocad

hi,
i found this trick to be extremely useful, i did it using the data link command. sort of created an external refrence, if the excel sheet changed i can update that in autocad in a single click. Can i bind permanently this sheet in autocad? just like we bind xref dwg files. ?

I had some experience with this process recently so allow me to put in my 2 cents worth here.

The process can be done at no charge using the tools you have in AutoCAD and MS Office. The process can be messy though and so 3rd party software which can assist in this is worth looking at.

I found that bringing the Excel table into AutoCAD is easier if you strip the table down to just the bare essentials. If you have lots of things in the table like merged cells, extra columns, etc....it will make formatting or making it look good in AutoCAD a nightmare. This is where the 3rd party add-ons seem to offer help. I tried one of the trial versions but it was way too limited and I was not about to pay $$$ to test something out. Perhaps I can try another option from another 3rd party vendor later.

My success came when I took the very complicated table the engineering team created and reduced it to only 3 columns it was quite easy to get it into AutoCAD and make it look like it belonged in the drawing, not a pasted in OLE object. Plus it can be updated when the Excel file is updated, etc....

I will certainly look to expand my capabilities with the built-in tools. But my first experience with this process shows it to be slow and cumbersome, even if you know what you're doing. There were times when it took the DataLink manager about 3 minutes to respond. I thought AutoCAD had locked up but the task manager showed it was still working and responding. Still the DataLink manager windows were just sitting there for what seemed like hours. It takes patience to get it done.

ReMark's Discipline Details

I work for a specialty chemical manufacturer. I do a little bit of everything from P&IDs to civil to architectural and structural.

Using

AutoCAD 2015

Join Date

Nov 2005

Location

Norwalk, CT USofA

Posts

42,318

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I used to use the "paste special" technique but switched to the DataLink method when it was first introduced and never went back. I've used the method now about a dozen times. Our spreadsheets do not tend to be complicated so that probably explains why the method has been so successful for us anyway.

"I have only come here seeking knowledge. Things they wouldn't teach me of in college."The Police

Eat brains...gain more knowledge!

I'm now a full member of the Society for the Promotion of Mediocrity in CAD. Standards? We don't need no stinkin' standards! Take whatever advice I offer and do the opposite.